Posted: Wed May 13, 26 4:08 pm Post subject: Old Technology
The computer has lost sound - it may not be repairable. But the old Kindle still works so YouTube still works, rather than on the phone. It also allows for Listen Again and probably podcasts if I was interested. Having nothing to do this afternoon, that was one idea.
I rather gave up with the Kindle when the books on Amazon Prime became abysmally written. Too many people self publishing who aren't literate. Used to be worth £7.99 a month. Nowadays it's only useful for "proper stuff" which you can get from any decent book seller or charity shop. For sometimes less if you get the right charity shop.
I'm also going to see if the very old camera (small and pocket sized) can be persuaded to work. 2012 was a long time ago and finding batteries is a bit of a farce.
Not sure what else is in dark corners. Wish me luck.
Florence, you can get free books on Kindle from several websites. Project Gutenberg is a good one for older authors that I use. Otherwise, I am afraid I can't help.
MR I know about other sites for Kindle but at present am fully using the library which is at the other end of a free bus pass ride. Maybe some day I will look again but to date free books rather than a monthly premium appeal.
I've got a PC here that I can setup using Linux for you if you want, I've converted a couple of Windows machines to Linux Mint it's quite a nice OS. Let me know.
Thanks tahir but I'm not courageous enough to go down the route of linux at the moment.
Didn't use the camera on the away days due to not spotting a line up of photos that would have been worth keeping. I'm going to have to ask myself about photography. It used to be on away days by coach but no longer do these.
We shall see what becomes of the computer. It isn't used as much nowadays and may only be needed for household accounts and such as I'm no longer required for committee work.
The thoughts behind this post on old technology is me thinking about what to keep in the changing of technology fashions in the world.
When I moved into this abode I had an ancient radio that played CDs. First the radio died then the CD option died. That was age and immense usage. Replaced the radio anyway but I realised that I no longer bought CDs. Nowadays I make use of YouTube for the same sort of thing. In other words, technology has changed.
Long ago I lived opposite a DVD rental shop and caught up with many films cheaply of an evening. But that's old technology. And the films market has changed. Can you imagine the general public going for "My Fair Lady" as a major hit anymore?
My bookcase stacks few books and lots of useful junk (kindle, historic photo albums from long ago, stationary - needs sorting).
There are some advantages to having older technology so that you can access things like CDs, vinyl records and video tapes that you already have.
Dpack, most of the tools we use on a daily basis are 19th or early 20th century, as the only way to get tools of comparable quality these days is get them made by a specialist.
Personally, I think paper and pen or pencil beat a lot of modern technology, but then I am a bit of a Luddite. Useful if the computer breaks/loses power/loses connection etc. and can't be hacked.
pencil is good ,my propelling one is 1920's vintage, the "leads" are modern(i do have a selection of old paper but use modern most of the time either old envelopes to make a note or £ daft a sheet hand made for art things
my boning knife and short butchers knife are edwardian, maybe not of EHO standard (an EHO would faint if they saw them in a trade kitchen, split and warped wood hilt scales, rust etc) but ideal for dismantling a pig with no sawing
my katana is rather nice, last but one made in 1867/8 at the Bizan forge, Kyoto, 1199 years of producing a few blades each winter. it has a cloud hamon.
winter is ideal for complex forge work, kitchen knives, spades and sheers etc are spring to autumn work. winter has low light for judging temp by color, it is cooler for kneeling by a forge or beating grain and shaping the metal at the anvil.
cooler air is denser than warm air and therefore packs more oxygen per puff of the bellows which gives more control over the high temps needed for forge welding the folded billet, shaping the blade and quench hardening
I will take your word for it Dpack, as complex ironwork is something I have never studied. A bladesmith we know, who is now in Canada, made some lovely Damascus steel knives. I also had a thumb draw knife from him which is rather nice.
I understand that the Japanese sword makers used ritual to calculate how to make the best blades. Follow the ritual and it worked out well, because each ritual had been worked out to give the right time/temperature/quenching etc. to produce the ideal blade.
Fun and high jinks with the Kindle. Have set up a new and more modern one to find that having had a fight with accessing the Amazon account, I've restored the old Kindle to working order after a reboot. Rude words have been issued.
Lost the purchased book list that was on the old Kindle. No great sweat, had they been hard copy they would have long since been donated to the second hand shop. The moral is that the library is the place to be for the good of the pocket. Different person from 2019 to 2026.
Nowadays, Microsoft has become much more pushy. On the old Kindle I can access my YouTube account for some reason but not on the new one. It's to do with the email account. I'm not paying for Outlook but using it with adverts on here. Cos I have an MS Word/Excel package that came free with the computer. Old Kindle happy with that. New Kindle not.
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